Dear generous folk,
as continues,
This is the fearless leader Joey speaking on behalf of himself. I am currently living in Port Angeles Washington and working for the Washington Conservation Corps/Department of Ecology. This blog is being thrown into the cyber universe via the posted up spot at my dining room table with a cup of coffee at my side, a mind full of memories, and a heart brimming with the love of life. I have come to type to you on this day, my finale of final blogs for the rain cyclists.
How to start? Oh wait, I just typed a whole paragraph starting this... (NOTE: edit-delete). Now you can all see that I don't read my notes...
I could not have asked for a better summer and a better summer could never be given to me. In life it is what you make of your time and how you spend your energy that dictates how your life is lived. This summer, I flowed. This summer was constant, and never in a bad way. I feel like I have so much kinetic energy built up from turning my legs into pistons that the phrase spring into life is a lowly comparison to how I feel. I try every time to answer questions that people ask me about my trip as fully as I can, but the only real answer I can give you all is as goes;
A journey can be read in a book and engrossed with tales that give you an itch every time you glance out your window, wondering. What I know is this... It does not pay to sit and wonder. My family has a pirate party every year and this year I was lucky enough to finish my bike trip and be back on time for it in Wisconsin. This year I won an award at the party, the first time this award has ever been given. The award is for the pirate who had a great adventure and made the most out of the past year. This award is a ceramic plate with a quote on it from Marco Polo that reads, "I have not told half of what I've seen, for I knew I would not be believed." That quote sums it all up. I hope to have inspired all of the readers of this blog to get out and try something new. To get out and adventure for themselves, to do that thing you've always wanted to. To go to that place that you've wanted to go to your whole life. To just get out, be free. It's a giant world out there and from what I've gathered, its the nicest place in the galaxy.
And if there are people that are reading this, persay, kids with arthritis, then I tell you this. I tell all of you this. If your having a bad day with your disease, or maybe your in the hospital getting an infusion and its just been a rough day, or few days, then READ. Books are the greatest escape you can ever have if you have no route of escape from where you are. Stories take you places you have never gone before. Stories literally shaped the way world is today. It is stories that create customs and fables that teach lessons and religions that waves of people follow. I don't think I would be anywhere without having had books and the stories of friends, family, and that random guy you talked to in the park. These books and stories you read will start to give you an itch, that look out the window where you just wonder. That wonder may be exactly what is putting my arthritis at bay. That wonder is what got me out to adventure, that wonder is what made me bike across the country. Who I biked for, the Arthritis Foundation, and why I biked, Kids Get Arthritis Too, are two of the most dear things to me. The Arthritis Foundation has changed my life, simple as that. The possibility to inspire kids with arthritis that you can beat your disease... now having done that is the best thing I have ever done in my life. This bike trip has been the most rewarding journey I could have ever had... and it was all part due to stories.
I will leave on this. My greatest fear in life is living a life not worth remembering. It's not fame and fortune that makes me seek this goal. I want to be a part of stories. That when I die, what I have completed in my life is still inspiring people beyond my death. Heroes get remembered, but legends never die. This bike trip has been a great addition to my standards of beating this fear I have. I encourage you all to try and live with this same fear as mine. It will push you to be a better person and will help you reach fantasy goals, like biking across the country...
With all my love I extend to you an invitation to start a story today; either a book, perhaps one by word of mouth, but more importantly, yours.
Joseph R.D. Michels
